Dr Christina Cheng

Biography

Dr Christina Cheng is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Health and Equity at the School of Health Sciences. Completing her PhD in February 2021, she also has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in health promotion. Her public health research experience included working at the Centre for Population Health Research of Deakin University and the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation of Monash University. Prior to turning her interest to public health, Christina had years of experience in marketing and communication.

Christina has always had a strong interest in digital health. Her master's thesis examined the readability of online health information of Australian websites and found the information too difficult to read for average Australians. From there, she embarked on her PhD journey to find out how to bridge the digital divide to promote health equity in the age of digital health. Her work involved conducting a validity testing of the eHealth Literacy Questionnaire (eHLQ) using contemporary validity theory and advanced statistical methods. Her PhD study also applied the Ophelia (Optimising Health Literacy and Access) process to work with community members and clinicians to co-design solutions to improve access and usage of health information and services for all community members.

Since joining the Centre for Global Health and Equity, Christina has been leading the data analyses of various projects commissioned by the state governments and health services using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She also assists in project management and facilitation of co-design workshops with community members and health professionals. In addition to projects, Christina had advised the New Zealand Ministry of Health on the data interpretation of the New Zealand National Health Survey and contributed to the writing and editing of the World Health Organization report 'Health literacy development for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases', which has received the highest rating of 1 as non-traditional research outputs. Christina is currently a co-supervisor to a PhD candidate working on a co-design project to support the needs of people in New South Wales prisons.